The Father of Mac OS X Is Leaving Apple — Bertrand Serlet, the guy who led the development of Mac OS X since the beginning, is leaving Apple. He was one of the heavyweights and a legendary figure at the company, even while he wasn't well known by the general public. But why is he leaving?

Yahoo Launches Its Answer To Google Instant: ‘Search Direct’ — Yes, Yahoo is launching a new product today that you might actually be interested in. It's derivative, but it looks useful. — Today at a press event in San Francisco, the company announced the launch of a new product called ‘Search Direct’.

Apple's Area 51: The Truth Is Out There — Scheduled to go live sometime this spring, Apple's 505,000-square-foot North Carolina data center is, according to COO Tim Cook, intended to support iTunes and MobileMe. But we don't yet know in what capacity, and Cook's remark …

Chip Shot: Intel Reaffirms Commitment to Itanium — As a result of recent announcements from Oracle, Intel is taking this opportunity to directly reiterate its plans for the Itanium processor. “Intel's work on Intel Itanium processors and platforms continues unabated with multiple generations …

Firefox 4 doubles IE9's 24-hour download tally — Firefox 4 managed to double IE9's download total in less than 24 hours after its release. — Firefox may be under fire from Microsoft's newly competitive browser, but with more than twice the downloads in its first day, Firefox 4 today soared over its rival by one measurement.

A Blogger's Sex Slavery Drama — Last spring, the Internet lit up with rumors of a Manhattan blogger who saved two Russian college students from possible human trafficking. In an exclusive interview with the targeted women, Abigail Pesta reveals their terrifying ordeal.

Publishers back Inkling's iPad textbooks — iPad textbook startup Inkling just announced that it has won financial backing from the two biggest names in the textbook business — McGraw-Hill and Pearson. — Founder and chief executive Matt MacInnis said Inkling's goal involves using …

Microsoft Intune Goes Live — After a yearlong beta program, the Windows Intune hosted desktop management service is going live, Microsoft announced Wednesday. — Designed for organizations with limited IT help, Intune is a Microsoft-hosted service that monitors and updates Windows 7-based desktop and laptop computers.

Group Messaging Service Yobongo Raises $1.35 Million — Investors' rush to find the next killer communications app is heating up. … The latest startup in the space to land funding is Yobongo Inc., a two-and-a-half-week old iPhone app that lets you chat with people located in the same geographic area.

Money Man — Paul Graham spills: Why some companies get his cash and others don't — Loopt. Reddit. Xobni. Bump. — Paul Graham—and the seed-stage venture firm he co-founded, Y Combinator—have been there at the start of all of them. And now Y Combinator is growing, too.

Breaking: Apple Pulls Christian “Gay Cure” App — It looks like Apple has responded to the outcry over an app from Christian group Exodus International aimed at “homosexual strugglers” by removing it from iTunes. — Some 145,000 people signed an online petition demanding it be removed.

Ten Entrepreneurship Rules for Building Massive Companies — Last week I gave a talk at South by Southwest, and in it I shared my top ten rules for entrepreneurship. They are borne from my experiences starting companies and partnering with great entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley as an angel and a venture capitalist.

Banning baby-faces from social site Facebook — ABOUT 20,000 children are kicked off Facebook every day for lying about their age, the social network site admitted yesterday. — Despite efforts to enforce the strict 13 years or older age limit some children still slip through the checks.